blumenauer: there is a great deal of hyperactive rhetoric about the fiscal cliff and the trouble ahead. the fact is that people should just take a deep breath and focus on where we are and where we need to go. first of all, it's not a fiscal cliff but a slope. there are many opportunities for us in the weeks ahead to be able to change the unsustainable trajectory of america's financial future. there are many efforts already evident and people taking steps to try and cope with it. the president campaigned very explicitly on raising the top tax rates. it was something that was embraced by democrats running for the senate and virtually all of them running for the house. . the house increased in democratic numbers. there were more democrats added to the house and more americans voted for the president and his vision, for the senate democrats and for democrats in the house than my republican friends on the other side of the aisle. it's encouraging that the president has decided that he's no longer going to negotiate with himself. he's laid out his positions, and has encouraged a response. i